Bangladesh: Runaway Muslim Persecution of Hindus

If you want to root out a Hindu family from its ancestral home in Bangladesh, just accuse one of its members of insulting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. You will find thousands of Muslims rushing to burn the Hindu family's whole neighborhood down, without hesitation or evidence.

In a horrible twist, an investigation into the Facebook post that ostensibly sparked the riots revealed that the user who wrote the supposedly offensive comments was MD Titu, not Titu Roy.

Within 30 years, there will be no Hindus left in Bangladesh, based on "the rate of exodus over the past 49 years." — Dr. Abul Barkat, Dhaka University.

If you want to punish a non-Muslim, especially a poor Christian in Pakistan, point your index finger at him and utter the word "blasphemy." You will soon find thousands of Islamic hardliners beside you chanting, "Death to blasphemers!" Similarly, if you want to root out a Hindu family from its ancestral home in Bangladesh, just accuse one of its members of insulting the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. You will soon find thousands of Muslims rushing to burn the Hindu family's whole neighborhood down, without hesitation or evidence.

Such behavior towards minorities -- Christians in Pakistan and Hindus in Bangladesh -- has become commonplace among fundamentalist Muslims in both countries, whose governments have surrendered to Islamists.

Hindu women stand beside the ruins of their home in Chittagong, Bangladesh, after it was destroyed by Islamists who attacked their community, in March 2013. (Image source: Mehedi Hasan Khan/Global Voices/Wikimedia Commons)

On November 5, for instance, a Bangladeshi Muslim, Alomgir Hossein, filed a complaint against a Hindu, Titu Roy, for allegedly posting derogatory remarks about the Islamic Prophet Muhammed on Facebook. The Muslims of Titu Roy's hometown of Thakurpara (a Hindu-dominated village in Rangpur) gave police a 24-hour ultimatum to arrest the "blasphemer," or they would take action.

Although Titu Roy lives with his wife and two children 500 miles away in Narayanganj, a few days later, after Friday prayers, around 20,000 Muslims from neighboring villages descended upon Thakurpara to take "revenge." Ignoring police attempts at dissuasion, the mob set fire to at least 30 Hindu homes, and looted and vandalized others.

When police intervened, clashes erupted. One man was killed and 20 others were injured, including four policemen. The police claimed it was activists from the Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami who led the arson attacks to create unrest ahead of the parliamentary elections.

In a horrible twist, an investigation into the Facebook post that ostensibly sparked the riots revealed an apparent case of mistaken identity. It turned out that the user who wrote the supposedly offensive comments was MD Titu, not Titu Roy. (MD is an abbreviation for Muhammed, used by millions of Muslims across the world; Titu is one of the rare names that is used by both Muslims and Hindus.)

"There were a significant number of attacks against religious minorities [in Bangladesh], particularly Hindus. In October hundreds of villagers in the eastern part of the country vandalized more than 50 Hindu family homes and 15 Hindu temples, following a Facebook post believed by some to be offensive to Islam. High levels of election-related violence in June resulted in the death of 126 individuals and injuries to 9,000 others. In one attack in a suburb of Dhaka, the media reported hundreds of attackers used sticks and bamboo poles to beat a group of Catholics and vandalize their homes and shops, injuring an estimated 60 people."

The report further cited religious minorities in Bangladesh who claim that the government continues to discriminate against them in property disputes, and does not adequately protect them from attacks. A report from Minority Rights Group International, released in November 2016, confirmed the findings:

"A large number of attacks targeting religious minorities in particular have subsequently been claimed by the organization Islamic State — a claim vigorously denied by the Bangladeshi government, which has attributed the attacks to domestic militant groups. Regardless of their authorship, since the beginning of this new outbreak of violence, the authorities have visibly failed to ensure the protection of those targeted."

According to an eminent Bangladeshi economist and researcher, Dr. Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, within 30 years, there will be no Hindus left in the country, based on "the rate of exodus over the past 49 years." Barkat, author of "Political Economy of Unpeopling of Indigenous People: The Case of Bangladesh," said that between 1964 and 2013, 11.3 million Hindus had left Bangladesh due to religious persecution and discrimination.

The Hindus of Bangladesh, a country created in 1971 from East Pakistan, have a long history of repression at the hands of Muslims. According to a 2013 report by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF):

"Hindu minorities living in countries throughout South Asia and other parts of the world are subject to varying degrees of legal and institutional discrimination, restrictions on their religious freedom, social prejudice, violence, social persecution, and economic and political marginalization. Hindu women are especially vulnerable and face kidnappings and forced conversions in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. In several countries where Hindus are minorities, non-state actors advance a discriminatory and exclusivist agenda, often with the tacit or explicit support of the state."

The HAF has designated Bangladesh as one of four "egregious violators" of the human rights of their Hindu populations, second only to Afghanistan. It is little wonder, then, that the Hindu population there is in steep decline, with a 2011 national census suggesting that a mere 8.4% remained, with nearly one million having left the country after 2001. To this day, Hindus continue to seek refuge in neighboring India.

Although secularism is enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh, the country is being "purified" by -- and for -- its fundamentalist Muslims.

Mohshin Habib, a Bangladeshi author, columnist and journalist, is Executive Editor of The Daily Asian Age.

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11 Reader Comments

Bisley • Dec 11, 2017 at 17:01

There is no law in countries like this, other than the rule of Muslim mobs. The governments either agree with the mobs, or are afraid of them, and refuse to use the force necessary to control them. This sort of thing, with mobs rioting, raping, murdering, kidnapping, burning, looting, etc., could be stopped by sending enough police, or soldiers, and shooting as many as it takes to stop it -- once it is understood that this will be the response to further rioting, it will stop. But, the governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. aren't going to do it. Any non-Muslims living in Islamic countries would be well advised to leave, unless they trust the governments to protect their lives and property. It will soon be this way in Europe unless sufficient force is applied to show these people they are not in command.

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Bruno MT • Dec 11, 2017 at 14:09

India has the power and the moral right to defend the citizens of a country which was created by India's intercession against Pakistan. Walk in and take over the financial resources of Bangladesh. Start destroying the mosques until the central Muslim authority issues a Fatwa against Muslims attacking non-Muslims. Or carve out a preferably desirable section of Bangladesh near or at India's border and make it part of India.

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Hendrik • Dec 11, 2017 at 12:36

The Western press does not talk about this, does not want to be seen as "islamophobic". No hesitation to berate Myanmar for expelling Muslims.A solution might be moving the Hindus to India. Myanmar is moving its Muslims back to Bangladesh where they originated.
Mass migration of people is not necessarily bad if it means separating two groups of people who do not get along. Better peace and separation then death and turmoil in multiculturalism.

Not to mention the buddhist persecutions by bangladeshi muslims. I have a buddhist friend in bangladesh. He often writes me about how the muslims burnt down their temples, killed monks and homes. Does this get into the news? Or when the muslims kill liberal muslims or freethinkers or atheists? And about the Rohinga (did i get that right) of Burma? What about their atrocities against the Hindu and buddhist population! Is that reported? The americans are duped by the snivelling liberals. And to think, I was one. Then i moved to ASIA and also read the Quran. Everything changed from there.

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Elizabeth Melman • Dec 11, 2017 at 10:05

That was my first thought. I have no idea why we in the west aren't seeing the writing on the wall. This will be us in Europe in 50 years.

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b.a. freeman Elizabeth Melman • Dec 12, 2017 at 16:17

Elizabeth, this will be europe in *ten* years, at most; it will be the u.s. in 20, probably sooner. the left is moving the line forward at breakneck speed. in 2007, who would have imagined that leftist rioters would go unpunished and not even sought by the police? who would have imagined that the police would stand by and allow a muslim to vandalize a shop owned by a jew, arresting him only when he tried to go inside? mr. obama, the most successful traitor in american history, made ignoring the law into an art form. what state prosecutor can meet with the spouse of a subject of investigation without being removed from office? if she's a leftist serving a leftist traitor, as loretta lynch, the u.s. attorney general in mr. obama's cabinet, was, then there is no notice paid. so long as the aims of the left are served, *nothing* matters. the left is using pious muslims as a proxy army to destabilize society; once society begins to collapse, the left will seize control (because they've had the most success seizing power when society was in chaos). when the left does take control and attempts to eliminate all muslims, no doubt by mass murder, at which they are adept, "moderate" muslims will become pious, and there will suddenly be *lots* more pious muslims than hard-core leftists.

it should be interesting, in the manner of the chinese curse ("may U live in interesting times")...

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Abhishek Ghosh • Dec 11, 2017 at 08:54

It's ok if only Bangladeshi Hindus came over to India, Muslims do the same, and the Islam-loving Chief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal, culturally and geographically closest to Bangladesh, does everything she can to protect Bangladeshi Muslims.

Ironically, she is supposed to be Hindu, at least by her name.

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Albert Reingewirtz • Dec 11, 2017 at 05:35

Why is it that the UN, the Pope, Western European leaders always take the side of Muslims? The Pope was just in Myanmar to protest the big Islamic refugees fleeing to Bangladesh? Nothing! No even a pip from the same for Buddhists and Christians fleeing Bangladesh?

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Berti Albert Reingewirtz • Dec 11, 2017 at 08:51

The Romans dislike this pope who was sent to replace Benedetto because he would not give in the globalists and wanted to protect Christianity. Just look at some of the speeches given by Benedetto and you will understand.

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David Ashton Albert Reingewirtz • Dec 11, 2017 at 10:24

There shouldn't be racial or religious persecution, but also there shouldn't be racial or religious discrimination in the attention that governments and media give to it. We all have our racial or religious priorities but they concern survival, defense and promotion, which can cause conflict of interest, but the ill-treatment of innocent people is not required or justifiable.

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